The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The rise in hardware and software support costs has given way to a new technology delivery model in which an application service provider hosts applications coupled to data storage units on networked devices that are owned by the application service provider. The application service provider's customers, typically business enterprises, connect to the hosted applications via a web browser or other application, and use the hosted applications with the expectation that the applications and any data entered into or created by the applications will be available on-demand whenever needed. Any type of application may be host be hosted, such as a database application, a chat or messaging application, a data analysis application, productivity applications, etc.
Simultaneously, deployments of applications on servers owned or otherwise controlled by the client computer which is using the application are commonplace. In particular, these single tenant deployments are “behind the firewall,” meaning that the server the application is executing on is behind the private firewall of the client computer. Applications on behind the firewall servers may include the exact same functionalities as applications accessed at a multitenant service provider. As businesses grow, their needs may change, and the businesses may desire to move between various deployments of an application. This, however, is not a seamless experience, and improvements in the area would be welcome.